Appearance on WABC-TV

Appearing on WABC-TV along with Andrew Rigie of the New York City Hospitality Alliance on Up Close with Diana Williams on WABC-TV.

Full description of 5 new measures announced:

Identification of violations for which businesses should receive a warning or opportunity to cure the violation instead of an automatic penalty or fine. Most business owners want to and try hard to comply with regulations, but sometimes because regulations may be complex or confusing, are unable to do so. More emphasis needs to be placed on educating business owners on how to better comply with regulations, not on punishing business owners when they fail to do so. Legislation being introduced in the Council will require agencies that interact with businesses to identify any violations for which a cure period or opportunity to receive a warning does not exist, and to make recommendations for whether a cure period should or should not be adopted for each such violation.

Elimination of obsolete violations. There are countless regulations that small businesses must adhere to, some of which have become obsolete. Potential violations that remain on the books, but are no longer enforced, can be a source of confusion and a hindrance to small businesses unaware of informal agency practice. Every agency that interacts with businesses will undertake a review to identify violations that are obsolete, and to recommend those that should be eliminated. Once these violations are identified, the Council will act through legislation to wipe them off the books for good.

Streamlining of regulatory processes; Simplification of the Place of Assembly permitting process. Through the feedback received by the Regulatory Review Panel from small business owners, the Mayor and City Council are working together to streamline regulations that are unduly burdensome or inefficient. The first reform from this ongoing effort is simplification of the place of assembly permitting process, which is currently an overly complicated process that involves duplicate work by the Department of Buildings and the Fire Department. Legislation being introduced in the Council will simplify this process, so that business owners need only interact with one agency in order to receive and later renew a place of assembly permit.

Standardization of customer service training for all agency inspectors. Presently, some agencies incorporate elements of customer service training into their inspector training programs, but others do not. Legislation being introduced in the Council will require the Mayor’s Office of Operations to develop a standardized customer service curriculum for training agency inspectors, to review each agency’s inspector training program, and to certify agency training programs that include the standardized customer service curriculum.

Designation of agency liaisons to serve as points-of-contact with chambers of commerce and industry groups. Legislation being introduced in the Council will require every agency that interacts with businesses to designate an employee to serve as the agency’s liaison to the regulated community.

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